Sunday, April 04, 2004

As anyone who knows me knows how much I truly despise Ann Coulter. Her personal attacks disguised as political commentary are truly the worst of the right-wing attack media. I'm just of the opinion that people like her simply shouldn't be let out into polite society.

Let's take a look at one of her latest columns. My responses to her rabid frothing are in green and her personal attacks are in red

ARE YOU sitting down? Another ex-government official who was fired or demoted by Bush has written a book that ... is critical of Bush! Eureka! The latest offering is Richard Clarke's new CBS-Viacom book, "Against All Enemies," which gets only a 35 on "rate a record" because the words don't make sense and you can't dance to it.

As long as we're investigating everything, how about investigating why some loser no one has ever heard of is getting so much press coverage for yet another "tell-all" book attacking the Bush administration?Gee, Ann, maybe it's because yet another high-ranking official in the administration is telling us how the Iraq war had nothing to do with terrorism?

When an FBI agent with close, regular contact with President Clinton wrote his book, he was virtually blacklisted from the mainstream media. Upon the release of Gary Aldrich's book "Unlimited Access" in 1996, White House adviser George Stephanopoulos immediately called TV producers demanding that they give Aldrich no airtime." Hmm, maybe that had something to do with the fact that many of the claims in his book the book are unverified rumor, and that the author is a bit of a nut, implying implying a vast left-wing conspiracy to keep his book down, even though it went to #1 that year?

... [More Aldrich claims] ... many [TV] headlines like this one on CNN: "Even Conservatives Back Away From Aldrich's Book." That's almost as much TV as Lewinsky mouthpiece William Ginsburg did before breakfast on an average day. (Let's take a moment here to imagine the indignity of being known as "Monica Lewinsky's mouthpiece.")Your attention please: Clinton had sex in the White House. Just in case someone had missed the last half of the 90s, Clinton had sex in the White House. This is a favorite topic of Ann's. She uses it to discredit any idea put forward by a non-Republican (or, to use her term, a "liberal").

In contrast to Aldrich's book, which was vindicated with a whoop just a few years later when the Monica Lewinsky [Again with Lewinsky?] scandal broke, many of Clarke's allegations were disproved within days of the book's release. Clarke claims, for example, that in early 2001, when he told President Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about al-Qaida, her "facial expression gave me the impression that she had never heard the term before." (If only she used botox like Sen. Kerry!)

Sean Hannity has been playing a radio interview that Dr. Rice gave to David Newman on WJR in Detroit back in October 2000, in which she discusses al-Qaida in great detail. This was months before chair-warmer Clarke claims her "facial expression" indicated she had never heard of the terrorist organization. Actually, Ann, go back and look again. His quote says he got the impression she was confused, not that she actually was.

But in deference to our liberal friends, [Wait, what?] let's leave aside the facts for now. A few months before Clarke was interpreting Dr. Rice's "facial expression," al-Qaida had bombed the USS Cole. Two years before that, al-Qaida bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In fact, al-Qaida or their allies had been responsible for a half dozen attacks on U.S. interests since Clinton had become president. (Paper-pusher Clarke was doing one heck of a job, wasn't he?) In the year 2000 alone, Lexis-Nexis lists 280 items mentioning al-Qaida.

By the end of 2000, anyone who read the paper had heard of al-Qaida. It is literally insane to imagine that Condoleezza Rice had not. For Pete's sake, even The New York Times knew about al-Qaida.Like, totally, "literally" insane, huh? And what's with this dig at the Times? I'm not a big fan of the legitimate conservative press, but I'm not going to imply that George Will is somehow stupid.

[Summary of Rice's credentials]

All this was while Clarke was presiding over six unanswered al-Qaida attacks on American interests and fretting about the looming Y2K emergency. But chair-warmer Clarke claims that on the basis of Rice's "facial expression" he could tell she was not familiar with the term "al-Qaida."

Isn't that just like a liberal? [Wait. Hold on a minute. Liberal? Clarke is a registered REBUBLICAN. He served under Clinton, yes, but he also served under two Republican administrations. The chair-warmer describes Bush as a cowboy and Rumsfeld as his gunslinger -- but the black chick is a dummy. Maybe even as dumb as Clarence Thomas! Perhaps someday liberals could map out the relative intelligence of various black government officials for us. So now, apparently, Clarke makes these claims, not because he thinks they are true, but because he is a racist. And not only is Clarke a racist, but ALL liberals (since Clarke must be a liberal) are racists and think that blacks are stupid. Thanks for clearing that up, Ann.

Did Clarke have the vaguest notion of Rice's background and education? Or did he think Dr. Rice was cleaning the Old Executive Office Building at night before the president chose her -- not him -- to be national security adviser? OK, that's just to repugnant an accusation to even respond to.

As we know from Dr. Rice's radio interview describing the threat of al-Qaida back in October 2000, she certainly didn't need to be told about al-Qaida by a government time-server. No doubt Dr. Rice was staring at Clarke in astonishment as he imparted this great insight: Keep an eye on al-Qaida! We've done nothing, but you should do something about it. Tag -- you're it. Oh, great, so now our elected officials are giving orders to their subordinates via telepathy." That look of perplexity Clarke saw was Condi thinking to herself: "Hmmm, did I demote this guy far enough?" Now it's not clear whether or not Clarke thought he was demoted, but it's very clear that Rice, herself, does not think he was. Ann, it seems, disagrees

I'm rather concerned about the new liberal radio programs with Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo. One thing the liberal side has always had over the conservative press is the lack of the character assassination that they tend to stoop too. Coulter and Limbaugh are two names that come to mind. I just hope that it doesn't get dirty on both sides.